My first limited over assignment was against Sri Lanka, and up first was the T20 game. I looked at my potential options, and instead of picking a 'one size fits all' limited over squad, I worked out who'd play in each format, and essentially picked two squads. There were a few obvious similiarities between the two, but as with real life, the T20 side lacked Cook and Trott, who weren't deemed "Twenty20 enough" to make it (despite Trott having a very good T20 average).
I picked a couple of young T20 specialists, with the hope of giving them a bit of experience for when I'd need them in tests and ODIs later on. Jason Roy from Surrey came in to open, with Ben Stokes from Durham coming in as my all-rounder, with Danny Briggs not quite making the final eleven.
The top order of big hitters fell apart, with us at one point at 20/4 and massively behind the rate. However, thanks to some huge hits from Kevin Pietersen we just hung on in there, and although he fell with quite a few needed for victory, Bopara blazed 41 off 28 (aided by cameos from Stokes and Swann) to give us victory with 7 balls remaining! It wasn't a great performance, but we got the win and a couple of the boys showed their class.
Changes were made for the ODI series, with Cook coming in to open with Kieswetter and Trott coming in at three. I wanted a genuine all-rounder at seven, but with no real obvious candidates in the counties, I went for a batsman who'd be able to give me a few overs rather than a bowler who could bat, knowing he'd be quite high up at number seven. With still no obvious candidates, I went for Paul Collingwood (remember him?) to back up Swann, Bresnan, Broad and Anderson. Woakes, Shahzad, Bopara and Briggs were the men to miss out from the 15 man squad.
Put into bat, Cook and Kiesy got us off to a real flyer. After smashing 80 from the first 10 overs and another 40 from the second lot of powerplays, I took the batting powerplay immediately, and was 150 for no loss after 20 overs. A big score was on the cards. However, 165/0 soon turned into 186/6 as we completely imploded, before finishing on 259 all out (thanks to a bit of recovery from the tail). Cook's 70 and Kieswetter's 91 the only things to write home about. Sri Lanka knocked it off (whilst going at the same 8 an over as we had earlier) for only one wicket lost. Useless.
The second ODI wasn't much better, as we had the same collapse but without the 165 run start. 6/3 turned into 48/5, and only the tail wagging a bit got us to 126 all out. Again, Sri Lanka got there without any dramas.
It wasn't good enough, and changes had to be made. Trott had made two ducks, Collingwood hadn't done anything with bat or ball, and Bresnan had been wicketless and expensive, so out they all went. In came Bopara for Trott (with Bell moving up to 3 and Ravi batting 6), Woakes for Collingwood and Briggs in for his ODI debut for Bresnan. However, with Woakes (who is listed as an all-rounder despite having FC and List A averages of around 20) batting at seven, we were always going to be a bit light with the bat.
We bowled first, and they got off to a good start, but we dragged them back, mainly thanks to 4 wickets to Briggs and 3 death wickets to Anderson. Chasing 238 to win, it was certainly gettable, and needed to keep the series alive. We had a few partnerships, and a lot of guys hung around, but didn't score quickly enough. The rate grew higher and higher, but suddenly a few guys got out slogging, and it was down to Woakes and Broad. The powerplay was taken with 80 needed off the last ten, but it was too much, and we came up 40 runs short after being bowled out.
It wasn't a great first three games, and it was obvious work needed to be done on our ODI set up. I saw the last two games as a chance for the players to prove what they could or couldn't do, and whether they were worthy of further interest. Thanks to a need to shorten the tail a touch, and because he hadn't bowled that well, I dropped Briggs after one game to reinsert Bresnan for the fourth game, but it didn't make much difference. Thanks almost solely to a not out 86 from Ravi Bopara (his best ODI score) we got to 227/9, despite Ravi and last man Jimmy Anderson bizarrely blocking out overs 48 and 49 for maidens (whilst being on full attack mode). And when Swann finished up with 3-30 off his ten and Sri Lanka needing another 50 with only 3 wickets left, it looked as though we were going to win! But sadly we couldn't finish the job, and a very quick 50 partnership from Perera and Herath saw Sri Lanka over the line with three wickets remaining. 4-0 down.
Feeling rather upset by all of this, I skipped the final game, which quite randomly England won.
So thoughts on the first ODI series under my tenure? There's a lot of work to be done. There's a few players who I think I can cast aside into the international hinterland - Paul Collingwood being one. I think it's officially all over for Colly. Tim Bresnan has a lot of work to do if he wants to retain his place, as he had a really poor series, as to be honest did Eoin Morgan. The balance of the side needs looking at, and I could do with finding a number seven batsman who is also able to bowl 10 overs while taking a few wickets and not being massively expensive. There's a lot to think about, but that's all going to have to wait, as next up is the India test series! How exciting!
